The 50 book challenge

[full nelson]

Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower Stephen King
The Catcher in the Rye Salinger
Autobiography John Stuart Mill
Play Piano in a Flash! Scott Houston
The Good Citizen Russell Dalton

My friend let me borrow his keyboard because he wanted to start playing the drums. He also let me borrow that book, and it actually did get me messing around pretty quickly. BUT the keyboard shorted after a week. He had lost the original power adapter and just used a random one. It finally broke once I started having fun. His method allows you to ignore the bass clef at first so you can start having fun immediately; then learn the bass clef over time. I could already read the treble clef so it was no problem. So the book is recommended for people that have no knowledge of piano or music.

[dp]

Dude I attended a talk by Elie Weisel I think!

[Zac Miley]

3. Night - Elie Wiesel

I thought it was pretty good - about the holocaust. It wasn't as descriptive as one could've hoped for from an actual survivor of it, but still it was a horrifyingly good book. Suggested.

It wasn't descriptive enough? Jesus christ you must be fucked in the head.

Yeah, I absolutely love hearing about people getting massacred. You know what I meant, moron. The writing was stale.

You listened to Elie Wiesel talk, Danny? That's interesting - did you enjoy it?

[max]

L'homme à l'envers - Fred Vargas
Debout les morts - San Antonio
Nous Sommes Tous des Playmobiles - Nicolas Ancion (a bunch of short stories taking place in Brussels. Picked this up at a charity, fun read)
Texas Holdem Poker - Paul Mendelson. Picked this up yesterday in London browsing through a bookstore. Good read, not too in-depth.
La Ligne Noire - Jean-Christophe Grangé. Great author. I've read his other 4 novels most of which have been made into terrible films. Quite a lengthy read this last one but it's gripping stuff that makes you get to sleep way too late

[sniikeri]

1. Turms, kuolematon Mika Waltari, in Finnish 681pg
2. V for Vendetta Alan Moore and David Lloyd, in Finnish 281pg (got it for Christmas, I found it fantastic)
3. Brave New World Aldous Huxley, in Finnish (felt like reading it again after finishing V for Vendetta
4. Die Bestie im Turm ("The Beast in/of the Tower") Tom Wolf, in German: this is a German "Hansekrimi", i.e. a "Hanseatic League murder mystery". 250pg, however, took me two weeks to read (I read German slow),

Yeha V for Vendetta is a good read but what was the point in mentioning the number of pages when its like 98% pictures.

With pictures you can fit much more in those 280 pages than with just text. I don't understand why this bothered you.

[dp]

1.Animal Farm George Orwell 97 pg

2.Cannery Row John Steinbeck 181 pg

3.The Winter of Our Discontent John Steinbeck 276 pg

4.The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales Dr. Oliver Sacks 243 pg

5.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 363 pg

Had to read it for school. I hated it.

[Zac Miley]

The Thousand Orcs - RA Salvatore.

Salvatore is my favorite author, so I obviously loved this book.

[Zac Miley]

"The Lone Drow" - RA Salvatore.

second in the dark elf trilogy. Reading the third this week.

Equally as good as the first.

[dp]

Ugh, I might not finish my next book for another 2-3 weeks, it's a long, involved read. I determined to at least hit 40 though.

[Sporatical_Distractions]

-The Waiting Years by Fumiko Enchi (206 pgs)

-This book is super depressing

[Colin]

1. Finishing School - Helen Fogwill Porter
2. Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - George Luis Stevenson
4. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
5. The Old Man and the Sea - Earnest Hemmingway
6. Next of Kin - Erik Frank Russell
7. The Momentum of Red - Monika Kidd

[Zac Miley]

"The Two Swords" - RA Salvatore

[Zac Miley]

1. Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
2. The Moon is Down (Steinbeck)
3. Night (Wiesel)
4. The Thousand Orcs (Salvatore)
5. The Lone Drow (Salvatore)
6. The Two Swords (Salvatore)
7. The Crystal Shard (Salvatore)
8. The Promise of the Witch-King (Salvatore)

[Colin]

1. Finishing School - Helen Fogwill Porter
2. Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - George Luis Stevenson
4. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
5. The Old Man and the Sea - Earnest Hemmingway
6. Next of Kin - Erik Frank Russell
7. The Momentum of Red - Monika Kidd
8. The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut is the kind of author who makes me wish I read as a teenager.

[Jeremy]

1. Breaking The Spell Daniel Dennett 339pg

2. On Chesil Beach Ian McEwan 166pg

3. Church And State; Australia's Imaginary Wall Tom Frame 95pg

4. The Kiwi's Egg; Charles Darwin & Natural Selection David Quammen 253pg

5. The Voyage Of The Beagle Charles Darwin 452pg



Wow that took me a long time to read. Like over a month. Partly because I've been so busy, haven't had time to read, and partly because it's so dry. I was really looking forward to reading about the Galapagos and Hobart, but both are very short sections, while the majority of the book is about Darwin's travels in South America. Having read a few books by Darwin now, including selections of Origin, it really is incredible that creationists and "intelligent designers" (as if there's a difference) constantly attack "Darwinism." What the fuck is "Darwinism?" There can't possibly be a single qualified biologist on Earth who believes in the teachings of Darwin; his work is 150 years old and completely out of date. It just goes to show how unbelievably ignorant religion can make people.

[Zac Miley]

1. Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
2. The Moon is Down (John Steinbeck)
3. Night (Elie Wiesel)
4. The Thousand Orcs (RA Salvatore)
5. The Lone Drow (RA Salvatore)
6. The Two Swords (RA Salvatore)
7. The Crystal Shard (RA Salvatore)
8. The Promise of the Witch-King (RA Salvatore)
9. Way of the Peaceful Warrior (Dan Millman

Strongly suggest this book. It's been made into a movie, but the movie isn't nearly as good. This one is probably my favorite I've read this year.

[Colin]

1. Finishing School - Helen Fogwill Porter
2. Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - George Luis Stevenson
4. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
5. The Old Man and the Sea - Earnest Hemmingway
6. Next of Kin - Erik Frank Russell
7. The Momentum of Red - Monika Kidd
8. The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
9. Blindness - Jose Saramago

Agh. First heavy read of the year, I guess. Good, I thought, but what do I know? Like Lord of the Flies, except with grownups, and everyone's blind.

[Jeremy]

1. Breaking The Spell Daniel Dennett 339pg

2. On Chesil Beach Ian McEwan 166pg

3. Church And State; Australia's Imaginary Wall Tom Frame 95pg

4. The Kiwi's Egg; Charles Darwin & Natural Selection David Quammen 253pg

5. The Voyage Of The Beagle Charles Darwin 452pg

6. The Stupid Country; How Australia is Dismantling Public Education Chris Bonnor and Jane Caro 223 pg

7. The Lifeboat Zacharey Jane 241 pg



The Stupid Country is a fantastic read, but probably only for Australians. Although to begin with it came across as very opinionated and rhetorical, once it starts getting into the details and backing up its arguments with facts, it was completely convincing. I've been trying to engage in debate with other Australians about the issue, but I'm yet to see one factually based argument of why our current private/public funding system is any good - which is not surprising since we're the only country in the world with such a system, and it was put in place by governments at election times, trying to win votes, without any long term planning. In fact we've never had a comprehensive audit of our total governmental education funding, which makes it completely unsurprising that we have such an inefficient system.


The Lifeboat is the first novel by Australian writer Zacharey Jane - who must hate her parents for calling her "Zacharey." I was actually reading it because I'm supposed to review it for a radio show, so it won't be released until next month. It starts off rather pretentious and waffley, but as the story picks up it becomes far more engaging and enjoyable. It's a rather predicable mystery story about a young woman working as a translator on a tropical island, and trying to discover the identities of two people with amnesia who turn up at the island with amnesia, but it's really a story of self discovery and finding your place in the world. Charming and a fairly light read.

[max]

L'homme à l'envers - Fred Vargas
Debout les morts - San Antonio
Nous Sommes Tous des Playmobiles - Nicolas Ancion
Texas Holdem Poker - Paul Mendelson.
La Ligne Noire - Jean-Christophe Grangé.
Time's Eye (A Time Odyssey) - Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter

Arthur Clarke is without a doubt one of the greatest Sci-Fi writers of all time. I actually picked up Time's Eye ATO because I couldn't find a specific other book of his ("Light of Other Days"). Time's Eye ATO is well worth the read and explores some interesting situations of civilizations from different ages mixing together. Will order the following books from the series soonish.

I'me currently reading 3 or 4 GMAT training books. Not exactly riveting stuff..

[Jeremy]

1. Breaking The Spell Daniel Dennett 339pg

2. On Chesil Beach Ian McEwan 166pg

3. Church And State; Australia's Imaginary Wall Tom Frame 95pg

4. The Kiwi's Egg; Charles Darwin & Natural Selection David Quammen 253pg

5. The Voyage Of The Beagle Charles Darwin 452pg

6. The Stupid Country; How Australia is Dismantling Public Education Chris Bonnor and Jane Caro 223 pg

7. The Lifeboat Zacharey Jane 241 pg

8. Psychogeography Will Self (and illustrated by Ralph Steadman) 256 pg


Amazing. Will Self is the new Hunter S Thompson, if not better. Amazingly talented writer who really forces you to question your beliefs and challenges society. Most of this book is available online here;

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... will-self/

Worth reading.